Thanks to EndoChoice, though, it can now be a lot better. The company recently completed design and production of Fuse Full Spectrum Endoscopy, for which it has been named the Health-Care Innovation recipient in this year’s Health-Care Heroes Awards sponsored by Atlanta Business Chronicle.

The Fuse Full Spectrum Endoscopy offers doctors a 330-degree view during a colonoscopy, a dramatic improvement over the 170-degree view offered by a traditional colonoscopy device.

“The analogy is like driving a car with only a front windshield and now we’ve given you side windows and mirrors to be able to see all around you,” said Doug Ladd, EndoChoice’s chief marketing officer. “For physicians using the Fuse system for the first time, they quickly appreciate that being able to see more means they are going to find more lesions behind the folds and flexures that naturally occur in the body.”

“It’s a pretty remarkable technology,” said Dr. Douglas K. Rex, distinguished professor of medicine at Indiana University and director of endoscopy at Indiana University Hospital. “For a long time we’ve been wanting to see out the sides; now we can.”

The makers of the device knew the Fuse would be an improvement, but they didn’t know how big an improvement until it was tested in clinical trials.

In a trial performed on 88 patients, Fuse detected 20 more adenomas than a traditional forward-viewing colonoscopy (48 rather than 28).

“The findings are nothing short of incredible,” Gilreath said.

EndoChoice, which was founded in Atlanta in 2008, has developed a wide range of products for gastroenterological care. It has an international headquarters in Germany and an innovation center in Israel and currently employees 425.

Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of death among cancers, according to the American Cancer Society, and the disease is expected to cause approximately 50,830 deaths this year. Another 150,000 new cases will be diagnosed.

Despite those numbers, the standard colonoscopy had not seen a major technological advance in two decades. The Fuse device took three years of development after the wife of one of the company’s engineers learned that even patients who get regular colonoscopies still contracted colon cancer.

“This led to the question, ‘Why does this happen and what can be done to change it?’” Ladd said. “As the engineers began to dissect the problem they realized the limited views provided by standard forward-viewing colonoscopies lead to pre-cancerous lesions being missed ... and the ability to see more would saves lives.”

Some estimates suggest that use of the Fuse will increase the rate of cancer prevention from 57 percent to 73 percent.

“Economically it means for every 100,000 people who get colonoscopies with Fuse the health-care system will save approximately $13 to 14 million per year due to decreased cancer treatment costs,” Ladd said.

“Fuse is a difference-maker,” said David Dubin, a three-time colon cancer survivor and founder of AliveAndKickn, a foundation for colon cancer fund- raising and research. “As a patient, as an advocate. I’d be the first to say I’d go to a place that has it over a place that doesn’t have it.”